Blog Entry 1 EDRG 3344

Children learn using five basic strategies. They rehearse by repeating words over and over, they predict by trying to anticipate what will happen, they organize by grouping information into categories, they elaborate by expanding information, and they monitor by keeping track of progress.

The six components of Language Arts are listening, reading, writing, talking, viewing, and visual representation.

I believe that how children learn and teaching Language Arts are connected in many ways. Children are obviously talking when they are repeating words over and over. For example, when studying vocabulary.

As a teacher you can use almost all of the six components of Language Arts to help them predict. Keep them guessing. Some of the classes I learned the most in where the ones where I kept wondering "what was going to happen next." I was paying attention!

Most of the Language Arts components can also be used to help children organize. They are going to group things together anyway. An example would be to show them how to organize their notebook. In which the children would be listening to instruction, writing their dividers, talking about how they will decorate the binder, looking at the prepared binder and in the end they will have their own visual representation.

Children have such imaginations and the language arts components, especially talking and writing, can be used to help them elaborate. When I think about my 4th grade teacher, I remember growing a bean in her class as part of a class project. I couldn't wait to get to class to see if there was anything growing out of that little paper cup. We were constantly monitoring it's growth. We had to write what we saw and talk about it with other students. We then would predict how much it would grow by the next day.

There are many examples of how children learn and the teaching of Language Arts, I hope some of my thoughts and examples have helped to prove my opinion.